Plotting
by Inusagi
Summary: Ianto is plotting. Set during Greeks Bearing Gifts. Dark!Ianto. Day 30 of the July TW Oneshot challenge (Posted late)


A/N: Not mine. Especially not the bit at the beginning that I stole directly from Greeks Bearing Gifts.

*.*.*

_Can't imagine a time when this isn't everything. Pain so constant, like my stomach's full of rats. Feels like this is all I am now. There isn't an inch of me that doesn't hurt. _

He looked at Toshiko. "I'm about to brew some of Jack's industrial strength coffee. Would you like a cup?"

"I'm…fine. Thanks, Ianto."

He turned and busied himself with gathering used mugs.

_After all of it…all the suffering. This is what's left. Pain and tidying. It's all I am anymore. _

_I'm the invisible man. What's worse, the invisible butler. _

_The only one who bothers to notice me at all is Jack. _

_Jack the monster. _

_Jack the killer. _

_He just wants to flirt, to get into my trousers. _

Ianto worked on autopilot, dumping half-full coffees out into the sink in the Hub's kitchenette. He gave the cups a quick rinse—and washed his—before stating a fresh pot.

_It's Jack's fault—all of it. _

_He could have worked to prevent the catastrophe at One. He's so bloody smug when he talks about how he knew those Ghost Shifts were trouble and how it's a shining example of why he's so chuffed to have broken off contact with Ms Hartman. _

_But did he raise a finger to prevent it? Oh, no. It's only 'Me and the Queen are bestest mates' when the lives of hundreds of people aren't on the line. _

_Like Lisa. _

_Another victim of Jack fucking Harkness. _

_He could have, at least, helped _her._ But no, it's all 'Execute her, Ianto.' and 'She's trying to take over the world, Ianto.'_

_Bastard. _

_All I want is for him to suffer. To pay for what he's done, what he's not done. _

_Who he's hurt. _

_It's the only thing that keeps me going. The only thing that breaks up this pain. That someday, somehow I will watch him suffer. _

He delivered the drinks with his little silver tray. Gwen and Owen first—flirting shamelessly over a skeleton. Toshiko next—still tapping away at her laptop, but now with bloodshot eyes Ianto pretended not to see. She'd turned down his offer of a cup of coffee, yes, but if anyone looked to need one, it was Tosh.

Then Jack.

Jack had "cleared off" a worktable to tinker with a rusted bit of extraterrestrial junk. The once neatly stacked folders and the model of the molecular structure of a non-Earthly compound were in shambles on the floor.

_I don't just want him to suffer. I want to _make_ him suffer. I want to watch him cry, hear him plead for mercy and know that I caused it. Watch him bleed to death, maybe. _

_Or slip antifreeze into a drink. _

_Yes. _

_I'll put it in one of those awful blended iced coffees he's always banging on about. 'Starbucks sells them, Ianto! I don't see why you won't make them!'_

_I'll add syrups, like bloody Starbucks does, to explain away the sweetness. Coconut, maybe. With chocolate. Or hazelnut. _

_He'll die in agony. His kidneys will shut down. He'll go blind, paralyzed. And I'll just watch. Watch and laugh._

_I have to wait, though, and I hate that. But they're all so suspicious of me now. If anything happened, I'd be the first suspect. _

_I need to make them trust me again. Enough that when Jack dies, they'll think 'Aliens' and not 'That damn Teaboy.'_

_At least until the autopsy._

_More than enough time to slip away. _

"I have your coffee, sir."

Jack put his screwdriver down and smiled brightly. "Ah, Ianto! You're a god amongst men. What would I ever do without you and your glorious coffee?"

Ianto smirked and, for good measure, gave him a wink.

*.*.*

A/N: The word was "nefarious."

I dunno if I like this one. It was more or less an experiment-slash-character study. It's been referenced several times that Ianto was meant to be a darker character than he wound up being, but that they moved it to the background in favor of sweet moments and sarcastic remarks, and that we were meant to see a sort of subtext.

So…yeah.


End file.
